The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-03-12
WRECKED IN A wAsHouT.

creek, on the Iron Mountain railroad Sat-
urday night, by which two persons lost
their lives and several were more or less
seriously injured.
The dead were; Henry Byron, aged
about thirty years, an unmarried resident
Of De Soto, Mo, and an unknown man,
whose body was carried away in the rush
ing waters Of the creek, which caused the
washout and the accident.
The injured, 50 far as ascertained were
as follows:
Valto Almeyer, Columbus, O.; serious
Commissions about the head and body.
Antonio Patella, Italy, laborer, passen-
ger for Texarkana; Commissions about the
face, head and lower limbs.
Frank Burns, st. Louis, one of the bag
gage-masters; slight cut in the face.
Lou Kelley engineer; severe contusions
about the face and body and toes Of left
foot crushed and badly bruised
Frank Hatch, De Soto, fireman; several
painful COMMISSIONS of the back and body.
j. II. Baldwin, jamestown, n Y. cut in
hand and wrist
j. H. Ttcomb, San Jose, Cal left hand
cut
s. P. Beck, Point Burnside, KY; con-
tusiOns about head and face.
William Fontarnc, news agent on the
train; COMMISSIONS about the head and
face.
The body of Mr.. Byron was found in the
smoking-car after the water had subsidized.
He had been drowned and was not
bruised or mutilated in any way. The
body was allowed to remain in the coach
until three O'Clock in the afternoon Of yes
ter day, when it was taken to De Soto and
given in charge of the cOmpany's under
taker, Mr. Robert Coxwell. The unknown
4 body was not recovered it supposedly
having been washed away in the food.
Those persons injured were given the
necessary medical attention, and some of
| them We're brought to St Louis and sent
to the Missouri Pacific hospital for treat
ment.
HERO OF THE WRECK:
P. H, Fitzgerald, one of the passengers,
said; 81 am a conductor, formerly from
| the New York 4 New England railroad,
but for the past two years and half have
been a conductor on the st. Louis, Iron
Mountain q Southern railroad. was on
my way home from st. Louis to Bismarck,
where | reside. Just before we ran
on the trestle l was sitting
in a seat talking with Joe Guion, the con-
ductor of the train, and George Herbert,
conductor of the local freight, who was
| going home to spend Sunday, after taking
his run into st. Louis Saturday evening.
We were talking about the high water,
and Herbert said it would be wonder if
we did not have some wrecks tonight.
He had only finished saying this when the
shock came, and Guion said: We have
got it now,' and he turned to me and said
Good bye, Fitz,' and we shook hands and
parted to save ourselves as best we could.
As soon as / saw the water we started
back through the car. All the other pas
sengers had left their seats in wild confu.
sion, and when found could not pass
along the aisle | climbed over the backs of
the seats and called out: Break out the
windows and go out at the side kicked
out a window when the water was up to
my waist and climbed on the window sill,
but could not reach to climb on top, until
Conductor GuiOu, who had followed the
same course of action, had succeeded in
reaching the top Of the car because
he was taller and could reach the ventila
tory gave me his assistance. then heard
Herbert call my name from the end of the
car which wa deepest in the water, say
ing; 'Fiz, for Gods sake, help me outl
! succeeded in getting him on top, and he
then held my hand while pulled up three
others from the same car. and some one
else helped me pull up two more from that
side
We then went to the other side, where
we rescued four more in the same way.
There were twelve of us on the ton of the
car, and we were fifty feet fs"'n land.
The water must have been at least ten feet
deep. Conductor Guion and l consulted
what we should do. | asked him if he
could swim and he only said: It's bad
case
took off all my heavy clothes three
times to swim out but others said wait
Guiou asked: Can you get to shore
Fltzp and l answered, yes; / can make
it, Finally when the car commenced K
roll and swing down with the current IS
if it was about to jump and swim ashore
and, before doing 80, we shook hands anC
said good bye He jumped and I fol
lowed him. Guion caught limb of {
tree and succeeded in climbing into the
tree and got from there to shore. die
not catch the tree but went down with
the current some distance and succeeded
in swimming to shore, 1t was broken
and very rapid current, l was fol
lowed by Conductor Herbert and pas
senger Herbert caught in the tree ant
the passenger followed me to shore
We then got the bell rope Il
the car by throwing the rope t,
Herbert in the tree and he threw it to the
car where it was made fast. We first SEN
an axe over the rope to the car and cut {
hole in the top of the car. All the passen
gers were landed by this rope and raft
which was made afterward, except or
man. who was drowned in the car aat
who is the only one positivel.
known to have persisted A
soon as we got to the top of the car W
called to those at the rear of the tram +
60 back and flag the Belmont train, whicl
was following close, and saw the brake
man go back After we got the passen
gers OFF the top of the smoker, the brake
man came to me and said Engineer Kelle,
and his fireman, Hatch, were down tn
stream on tree He had heard them call
ing when he came in after tagging Nc
!, | eng IVa r,ot a Ioddar from q farm hons